The Wrestling Bucket

The Briscoes vs The Bravado Bros, ROH "Tag Team Turmoil"

Checked this out because Briscoes have been on a tear lately, and the Bravados have an act that makes them pretty hatable. Jay cuts a promo on WGTT and ends with the awesome line (to the Bravados) "nothing personal boys, but we're gon' kick yo' ass". And that they do. The match was only around 6 minutes long, and Bravados got in more offence than they should have, but the Briscoes' beating and schtick was fun. Really liked the booking of the interference upset finish, too.

Yoshihito Sasaki/Kazuki Hashimoto vs Yuji Okabayashi/Shinobu, BJW 7/25

MOTYC for matches less than ten minutes. Short-ish match, but tonnes of action and asskicking. As you would expect, Sasaki vs Shinobu is where it's at, with both going fighting tooth and nail and trying to tear each other's heads off, but Ok and Hash also brought it in spades. Stiff match all round. Sasaki and Shinobu hate each other so much, and Okabayashi throws his muscle around effectively. Shinobu and Sasaki even go at it after the bell.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama, NJ 8/2

I enjoyed Takayama beating up the pretty boy ace, but this stopped short of being anything memorable. Takayama brought it and dished out the pain, but not on the same scale he would against a guy like KENTA. Which is fine, Tanahashi is the company ace, not a junior, so I'm not expecting Takayama to run through him. Tanahashi makes an OK punching bag, but he really isn't good enough at striking and doesn't "bring it" enough for me to really buy his comeback, nor does he sell the beating well enough to make me buy Takayama having a chance of winning.

Yoshihiro Takayama vs Giant Bernard, NJ 8/6

Pretty mediocre superheavyweight match. I actually thought Takayama once again did a good job. Here he was an old bastard trying to prove he's not past it and can still hang with a guy like Bernard. At the start of the match, he couldn't beat Bernard in a test-of-strength, so resorted to a cheapshot. He then lost a shoulder tackle exchange and immediately got to his feet and brushed it off, trying to act like it didn't phase him. After that the match was pretty crappy, as Bernard is pretty damn boring when on offence and the crowd didn't give two craps either. They did a decent job making the finish feel like an upset, but too little too late.